Innovating global value chains : creation of the netbook market by Taiwanese firms

This paper explores the process of creation of the netbook market by Taiwanese firms as an example of a disruptive innovation by latecomer firms. As an analytical framework, I employ the global value chain perspective to capture the dynamics of vertical inter-firm relationships that drive some firms in the chain to change the status quo of the industry. I then divide the process of the emergence of the netbook market into three consecutive stages, i.e. (1) the launch of the first-generation netbook by a Taiwanese firm named ASUSTeK, (2) the response of the two powerful platform leaders of the industry, Intel and Microsoft Intel, to ASUSTeK’s innovation, and (3) the market entry by another powerful Taiwanese firm, Acer, and explain how Taiwanese firms broke the Intel-centric market and tapped into the market-creating innovation opportunities that had been suppressed by the two powerful platform leaders. I also show that the creation of the netbook industry was an evolutionary process in which a series of responses by different industry players led to changes in the status quo of the industry.

後発工業国企業による新市場の革新的創出 -- 台湾企業によるネットブック事業の分析

本稿では，インターネットの利用を中心に機能を絞った安価で小型のパーソナル・コンピュータ「ネットブック」の事例に即して，後発工業国企業が開発した新製品が，先進国のコア部品ベンダーの製品戦略を攪乱し，ブランド企業を巻き込みながら，一定の市場を獲得するに至った過程を分析する。第I節では，産業内分業を構成する主要な企業群の関係に注目してイノベーションをとらえる視点を導入する。第II節では，ネットブックの登場に先立つ時期のノート型PC 産業の産業内分業の構図を分析し，この市場で「性能の供給過剰」が起きていたことを明らかにする。第III節では，ネットブック市場の生成と発展の過程を分析し，このプロセスが「台湾企業による革新的な新製品の創出→コア部品ベンダーによる防御的な対応行動→これを受けた他のブランド企業（特に台湾企業・エイサー）の参入と積極的な生産拡大」という経緯をたどったこと，この新市場の創出の過程が，産業内分業を構成する企業群の相互誘発的な行動の連鎖として捉えられることを明らかにする。

International labor migration in Vietnam and the impact of receiving countries' policies

Labor export has been part of Vietnam’s socio-economic development strategy since the beginning of the doi moi era. Recent years, Vietnam has sent about 80,000 workers abroad per year. Vietnam has become a major source country of unskilled foreign workers for high-income East Asian countries. However, in these receiving countries, the desertion rate among Vietnamese workers is quite high, compared with that for workers from other countries. This paper examines the impact of Korean and Japanese policies for receiving foreign workers applied to and implemented in Vietnam, as well as the impact of Vietnamese labor sending system, on the problem of runaway workers.

Value added trade and structure of high-technology exports in China

This study focuses on the technological intensity of China's exports. It first introduces the method of decomposing gross exports by using the Asian international input–output tables. The empirical results indicate that the technological intensity of Chinese exports has been significantly overestimated due to its high dependency on import content, especially in high-technology exports, an area highly dominated by the electronic and electrical equipment sector. Furthermore, a significant portion of value added embodied in China's high-technology exports comes from services and high-technology manufacturers in neighboring economies, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

「華南銀行」の迷走と変容 -- 金融的「南進」の理想と現実 -- 1919~1945

本稿は，1919 年に日本植民地下の台北で，大正期における南進の理想を金融的に具現化するべく，日本と華僑の合弁によって創設された「華南銀行」の経営を考察する。そこからは大正から昭和において，ほぼ一貫して「南進」という文脈のなかで活動した特徴ある日系金融機関でありながらも，経済環境の悪化だけでなく，設立時からの構造的問題やずさんな経営内容によって長期間の迷走を続け，変容していった様相が浮かび上がる。具体的には，(1) 1919年の創設から数年の拡張期，(2) 経営不調から1924年と1927年に実施された第一次・第二次整理の内容，(3) 1920年代末から南洋邦人事業向け融資に深入りする背景と顛末，(4) 1930年代の第三次整理案が錯綜して迷走を続けたまま1940年代の終焉に向かった姿，などをたどる。

The supply chain in East Asia

East Asia is a major tea-consuming and -producing area; however, few studies have examined the East Asian tea industry from the perspective of the supply chain. Based on field and desktop studies of the tea markets in Taiwan and China, this paper provides an overview of each market together with detailed case studies. In this analysis, the characteristics of the tea industry and the main problems in the current supply chain in terms of governance, upgrading, and food safety and quality control are identified. This paper will help fill the gap in studies of the East Asian tea industry from the perspective of the supply chain.

Subjective Evaluation of Transmission Errors in IPTV and 3DTV

The increase of multimedia services delivered over packet-based networks has entailed greater quality expectations of the end-users. This has led to an intensive research on techniques for evaluating the quality of experience perceived by the viewers of audiovisual content, considering the different degradations that it could suffer along the broadcasting system. In this paper, a comprehensive study of the impact of transmission errors affecting video and audio in IPTV is presented. With this aim, subjective assessment tests were carried out proposing a novel methodology trying to keep as close as possible home environment viewing conditions. Also 3DTV content in side-by-side format has been used in the experiments to compare the impact of the degradations. The results provide a better understanding of the effects of transmission errors, and show that the QoE related to the first approach of 3DTV is acceptable, but the visual discomfort that it causes should be reduced.

Multi-Resolution Texture Coding for Multi-Resolution 3D Meshes

We present an innovative system to encode and transmit textured multi-resolution 3D meshes in a progressive way, with no need to send several texture images, one for each mesh LOD (Level Of Detail). All texture LODs are created from the finest one (associated to the finest mesh), but can be re- constructed progressively from the coarsest thanks to refinement images calculated in the encoding process, and transmitted only if needed. This allows us to adjust the LOD/quality of both 3D mesh and texture according to the rendering power of the device that will display them, and to the network capacity. Additionally, we achieve big savings in data transmission by avoiding altogether texture coordinates, which are generated automatically thanks to an unwrapping system agreed upon by both encoder and decoder.

Berth management in container terminals: quality of service

This paper empirically evaluates container terminal service attributes. The methodology proposed focuses on statistical control. Based on the concept of service segmentation, we employed control charts to classify container terminal services. The purpose of control charts is to allow simple detection of events that are indicative of actual process change. This simple decision can be difficult where the process characteristic is continuously varying; the control chart provides statistically objective criteria of change. When change is detected and considered good its cause should be identified and possibly become the new way of working, where the change is bad then its cause should be identified and eliminated. This paper is organized as follows: Section 1 is the introduction, Section 2 provides a brief note on other studies that inspired this research, section 3 focuses on the methodology used, and develops the results obtained and finally conclusions are shown in Section 4. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed.

Application of a dynamic event tree methodolgy to steam generator tube rupture sequences

The Integrated Safety Assessment (ISA) methodology, developed by the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), has been applied to a thermo-hydraulical analysis of a Westinghouse 3-loop PWR plant by means of the dynamic event trees (DET) for Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) sequences. The ISA methodology allows obtaining the SGTR Dynamic Event Tree taking into account the operator actuation times. Simulations are performed with SCAIS (Simulation Code system for Integrated Safety Assessment), which includes a dynamic coupling with MAAP thermal hydraulic code. The results show the capability of the ISA methodology and SCAIS platform to obtain the DET of complex sequences.

A hardware in the loop design methodology for FPGA system and its application to complex functions

In this work, a unified algorithm-architecture-circuit co-design environment for complex FPGA system development is presented. The main objective is to find an efficient methodology for designing a configurable optimized FPGA system by using as few efforts as possible in verification stage, so as to speed up the development period. A proposed high performance FFT/iFFT processor for Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Ultra Wideband (MB-OFDM UWB) system design process is given as an example to demonstrate the proposed methodology. This efficient design methodology is tested and considered to be suitable for almost all types of complex FPGA system designs and verifications.

Advances in optics for solid state lighting

Optics and LEDs, design Methods, design examples, conclusions

Some framework ideas for software engineering education

It is difficult, if not impossible, to find something that is not changing in computer technology: circuits, architectures, languages, methods, fields of application ... The "central object" itself of this brand of engineering, software, represents such a diverse reality (many objects) that the fact that it has only one name gives rise to considerable confusion. This issue, among others, was taken up by Fox (1) and, at this point, I would like to underline that it is more of a pragmatic issue than an academic one. Thus, Software Engineering Education moves in an unstable, undefined'world. This axiom governs and limits the. validity of all educational proposals in the area of Software Engineering and, thereforer all the ideas presented in this paper.